Unreliable

"Hmm, maybe we can do something with this."  Lucas mumbled to himself as he scrawled another speculative equation.  Like a dozen other disjointed notes, he figured there was a chance it could be used in some way to assist with the interpretation of the gathered data.  There was no telling what might ultimately prove useful, so everything that came to his mind was added to the inchoate tapestry of science.

"Damn it, we can't get anything from this."  Chloe lamented.  Thoroughly working the sheet of scratch paper before her, the writing was neatly structured into sections and clearly labelled.  Sitting together in the otherwise abandoned common room at a broad circular table, notes had been laid out over the table's surface.

The curtains were drawn wide open, revealing the stark emptiness of the rain-slicked walkways outside.  The windows themselves could only open partway along the top edge, which Lucas had done earlier in the day.  The only sounds perceptible through them so far had been the patter of the day's variable rainfall.  Lucas and Chloe were dressed in light coats; thankfully the moisture outside prevented the temperature from falling unbearably low.

"Huh?" Leaning over, Lucas examined the strictly ordered calculations.  A big graphing calculator beside Chloe displayed a lingering calculation he couldn't quite read in the gradually dimming light of the setting sun.  "You having trouble figuring out an angle from what we have?"

"Yeah."  Chloe looked at Lucas with weary frustration of a long fruitless day lining her face.  "We can't do anything with what we have.  All that effort going around talking to everyone, measuring distances and it's fucking useless."

"No it's not.  There's an area near the walls where people passed out and everyone on the other side remained conscious.  All we have to do is figure out where the dividing line is."  A casual initial observation revealed that those present anywhere on the sixth floor for either event had passed out, while a couple on floor five did not.  So that more or less confirmed about two floors of shielding was needed to keep one from being knocked out.  "Since we have a rough idea of how much shielding is needed, we can work backwards from there to estimate an angle of origin."

"Yes.  That's what I was trying to do.  And given what we have I think you were probably right about the event being more or less uniform.  But figuring out anything specific beyond that like an angle of origin just isn't possible."  Chloe sighed and shook her head before mumbling to herself.  "Not that it would even matter."

"No, it's simple."  Lucas leaned over to check the formatted data Chloe had meticulously produced from the disjointed collection of testimonies.  "Just see how far away someone was at most from one side of the building and still got knocked out.  Then look at how close someone was to the wall and didn't pass out.  The line would be somewhere in between those two things."  After that, they could repeat the process with the other wall to arrive at a direction.  A rough indicator of where within the city the alien wormhole was likely to be.

"That's actually the problem."  Chloe selected and pushed a sheet of paper towards Lucas as she spoke.  "People don't actually have any idea where they were standing when it happened."

"Huh?"  Lucas stared at Chloe quizzically.  "How could they not remember where they were?"

"Just look at these two from the first event, for example.  This person estimates they were about four feet from the door and didn't pass out.  And this other person-"  Chloe traced her fingertip across the paper to another entry.  "They claim they were by the stairs- about thirty two feet away and they did pass out."

"What?"  Lucas examined the information.  The two people would have both been in the main lobby, if their testimony could be believed.  Given their assumptions, that shouldn't have been the case.  There seemed to be fairly clear evidence that the strange knock out radiation could be blocked and didn't miss anyone who didn't benefit from some kind of shielding.  "If our assumptions are true, both those things couldn't have happened at the same time.  So maybe something in our assumptions is wrong."

"No, if they were wrong, I think we'd see a lot more variability in the data, like everyone on the top floor not being knocked out.  It's just that both of these claims contradict all the other statements given."  Chloe waved her hand across the data.  "Peoples' memories are just not reliable enough to expect any level of precision with the kind of process we've been using."

"So, just ignore those ones, then.  And just use the rest."

"It's not that simple."  Chloe pointed to another place on her sheet layered with calculations.  "What I pointed out was the most extreme disagreement, but they aren't the only two who disagree.  There's disagreement everywhere in what we have here.  For both of these events."

"That's a weird problem."

"It's not weird at all.  The problem is we waited too long, most people we got to talking to them hours after the thing we were asking them about.  And people just suck at remembering things in general.  I can't even use my own memory for the first event because I was somewhere in the hallway at the time and every part of the hallway looks the same.  At the time, it just didn't occur to me to try and remember exactly where I was standing."

"Huh."  Lucas examined the information Chloe referenced.  With all the notes they needed collected on one sheet it was plain to see that she was correct about the widespread inconsistency.  "Well, can't we still do something to eliminate that problem?  Like take averages?"

Chloe turned on a big flashlight and set it upright at the center of the table, producing a slightly diffuse glow overhead.  She looked at him with a dissatisfied frown.  "You don't know anything about statistics, do you?"

"I know a little.  But I haven't really looked into it."  Lucas reluctantly admitted.

"If you want, I could give you my old statistics book.  But until then, just trust me on this.  With a problem like this we can't just do something as simple as using averages.  I attempted to work out some very basic analysis to give a range of possible values.  But that doesn't work because we have a very small sample size and results that vary enough that our probable angle of origin ends up covering about one quarter of the sky for the first event and very close to half the sky for the second event.  It's just not possible to narrow anything down further than that."

Lucas silently considered Chloe's statements.  He was hoping their efforts would eventually give them something more precise.  If they could at least determine that each event originated from different places in the sky, that would confirm his hypothesis that the source of the events was likely something relatively close that had moved.  Somewhere in Portland, or possibly in Earth orbit.  Of course, Evan's anomalous warning and the mysterious retreat of the soldiers still gave them some reason to suspect such things.  But even well-founded suspicion was not the same as knowledge.

Even with that failure, they could at least still be fairly certain that it took about two floors of shielding to be protected from the knockout radiation.  That wasn't nothing.  Maybe later he'd suggest that the few people whose rooms were on the top floor ought to consider relocating to a lower floor.  Just as Lucas began contemplating a procedure to help raise accuracy, a small voice came to them from the entrance.

"Do either of you have any food?"

"No."  Chloe snapped back tersely before Lucas could orient himself to see the speaker.

"Oh.  Nobody has any.  And everyone's starting to get really hungry."  Erin's voice sank.  A bulky grey coat wrapped snugly around her body, making her appear heavier than she was.  Erin held a downcast flashlight in one hand, partly covered to diminish the intensity of the beam.  "I hope the army returns soon."

"I hope so too."  Chloe nodded.

There was a solemn pause for a moment before Erin spoke again.  "Do you think it's a good idea to have that light on with the windows open?"

"If we hear anything outside, we'll turn it off."  Chloe motioned to the slightly opened window; having spent several hours somewhat in the open with Lucas had evidently calmed her unease about what was hinted to be lurking outside.

Erin nodded, not looking altogether satisfied with Chloe's answer; still nervously regarding the desolate, blackening view through the windows.  "I'm going to keep asking around, and see if anyone else has any extra food."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea."  Chloe nodded.  "Let me know if something comes up."

While the two girls were speaking to each other, Lucas had been stunned into silence.  He had been thinking about the small meal they had fabricated from the modest stashes in their rooms.  Once the door drifted shut with a soft click and the footfalls receded through the hallway, he whispered to Chloe.  "Why did you lie?"

"We don't have enough food to share."

"You shared with me."

"That wasn't sharing, that was a trade."  Chloe regarded him with a serious glance as she folded her arms upon the round table.  "If we just gave away what little we have, that would only feed everyone for maybe a day, then they'd be back to where they are now, and we'd be in the same situation."

"We're already in the same situation."  Lucas paused a moment, then shrugged.  "We probably only have to hold out another day, anyway.  So that shouldn't really matter."

"If it's just going to be a day, then they can just wait a day."  Chloe laughed mockingly for a moment.  "You really think it will be just a day before someone comes back to get us?"

"Sure, probably.  The zombies aren't any threat at all.  And whatever caused the blackout bomb thing was hasn't triggered it again since this morning.  We also haven't heard the noises Evan was talking about."  Lucas paused there for a moment to shrug passively.  "So there doesn't seem to be any direct threats or dangers at the moment."

"Well, if you want to give away what little you have, that's your business."  There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

"There aren't really any serious obstacles outside."

"If there aren't any threats, then why don't you leave right now?"

"You know what I meant."  Lucas protested.  "I meant that there's nothing dangerous to someone who has a chance to adequately prepare.  And we know for certain that most of the world has the time to prepare for what they want to do about the zombies."  Lucas continued after a moment's hesitation.  "Anyway, whatever caused this blackout phenomenon is a bit more problematic."

"That's the understatement of the year."  Chloe shook her head with a hint of a sigh.

Lucas frowned at the interruption.  "I was about to say, this blackout thing is a problem, but just like the zombies, it's not an impossible obstacle.  We know it can be blocked.  So if you could control a vehicle by remote control from a safe area, like a drone, then you could safely bring it into the city without the risk of it being lost to the phenomenon.  It's only going to be a matter of time before someone tries that.  Heck, they may already be looking around inside the city to figure out what's going on here."

"Investigating inside the city is not the same thing as a rescue."

"It's not.  But when they do that, they're going to see that there's people here who aren't zombies.  Then they'll just send some remote controlled cars in to get us."

Chloe studied Lucas's face, her eyes intensely focused on his in deathly serious candor.  "If this is really some kind of alien invasion, the first priority will be to stop it before making any effort to get us out of here.  If they come to get us, it's going to be a long time before that happens."

Lucas flatly shook his head.  "The zombies and the blackout creating entities are both problems that need to be addressed in order for things to return to normal.  If whatever created the blackout is really gone, the only problem to solve around here will be the zombie problem.  So that means preventing the creation of more zombies will be the top priority."

"And if whatever caused the blackout is still around they're not going to pay any attention to us."

"Yeah, that's possible I guess.  But if it were still around, we should at least be seeing some evidence of that.  Evan said he heard some kind of sounds outside.  And we haven't heard anything all day."  Lucas shrugged and motioned to the open windows.  "Also, if whatever caused that is still around, when the drones are sent here those entities will trigger another blackout phenomenon.  No more blackouts means we just have to wait for the people out there to do their thing."

"Well, do whatever you like then.  But leave me out of it."  Chloe sighed and pushed away from the table, standing up.  "It's been a long day, I'm going to go get some rest."

"We're at least going to have some idea of what to expect."  Lucas spoke assuredly as Chloe took her flashlight with her from the tabletop.  She left the room without a reply, leaving Lucas alone with his thoughts.

Turning on his spare flashlight, Lucas began to examine the notes Chloe had abandoned.  Although he couldn't verify the correctness of the statistics equations, there didn't appear to be any mistakes from what he did understand.  After a few minutes of contemplative silence, he decided to look outside the windows for any signs of activity.

Ever since Evan's warning the remaining denizens of the building were dead silent.  It was almost as if everyone else had already departed.  Standing, Lucas approached the windows with his light readied.  The empty walkways running between the dorm and the library were slick with the day's rain.  On the other side, the small clearing along the inside edge of the building's perimeter were lined with benches, bushes and pine trees.  There was nothing moving to examine and with the windows positioned as they were he couldn't check other buildings in the city for lights.

Lucas thought to go to the rooftop to get a better look, but he felt rather tired now that there were no distractions.  Confident the morning light would bring its own set of answers, he gathered up the preliminary equations and data he and Chloe had worked hard on through the day.  Nobody met him as he returned to his room.  Opening the window curtains to black skies, he laid down whilst idly gazing into the darkness.  Wondering what was going on in the outside world, he soon drifted away into a dreamless slumber.

Awakened by the morning light and hearing a faint, low sound, Lucas journeyed downstairs to see what new evidence would have presented itself overnight.  With light still minimal and battery power precious, Lucas guided himself through the dim hallways by his hands and carefully progressed to the ground floor.

The whole trip, Jorge was the only person he encountered; standing alone at the bottom of the front lobby stairs.  He was nervously watching as several figures rattled the doors, all producing a familiar, characteristic moan that mingled into a foul white noise.

"Hey."  Lucas slowly descended the steps as Jorge turned with a start to peer at him.  "What's going on?"

"Just doing a check."  Jorge exhaled slowly and cautiously returned his attention to the outside.  He was holding a heavy baseball bat in both hands, fingers flexing on the grip.  "They came this way at some point in the night and have been there ever since.  They know we're in here."

"You've been down here all night?"

"No."  Jorge looked at him only briefly, but released one hand from his weapon to scratch at the traces of stubble on his chin.  "Simon set up a watch and we've been taking turns coming down here to check up on things.  Does anything look cracked or damaged over there?"

"Huh?"  Lucas descended the steps and moved past Jorge before casually turning around.  "No.  It looks fine to me."

Jorge exhaled deeply, a nervous tension visibly flowing from his strained muscles.  Regardless, he lowered the bat only very slowly.

"So was someone awake all through the night?"

"Yeah, we're set up in a room just by the stairs to keep a watch out."

"There was another blackout event, wasn't there?"  Lucas asked.

Jorge replied as he began to creep backwards up the steps.  "No.  No, I don't think so.  Nobody mentioned one.  I should probably go back now."  Jorge eagerly retreated.

Remaining behind, Lucas gazed outside, thinking about what that news could mean.  As he did so, he began to truly worry for the first time since the outbreak had begun.

Abandoned

"Should we turn on a flashlight so we can see what's out there?"  The pensive voice carried with it an undercurrent of creeping dread.  Hints about unstoppable forces lurking within the uninhabited regions of the city made people deeply cautious of spilling light.  Given the scant knowledge they possessed, the imagined risks such an act entailed made the idea feel intuitively foolish.

"Not unless we absolutely need to."  Evan replied softly to Jennifer, who wholeheartedly nodded in grim concurrence.  He glanced towards the other barely perceptible outlines of people as he began to address them all with a slightly louder voice.  "Since it's night now, we should hold off on what we were planning until tomorrow morning."  A chorus of silent affirmation swept across the figures gathered amidst the shadows.

While time had pressed onwards in daylight, nervous apprehension had somewhat faded into a subdued background discomfort.  The emotional dread had previously been broken with a productive task on their minds, and while waiting they had shared food from the building's supply.  Intermittent casual chatter followed for the remainder of the day while passively mindful to not being easily visible from outside.  The mood was, while not altogether untainted, lightened considerably.

Occasionally, a faint breeze weaving through cracks would bring with it a whiff of decay from the slain corpses outside the gate.  The combination of chill and the stony, wet scent of the storm had proven to be a great masking boon.  It was an obtrusive reminder of their situation, even while subdued enough to mostly ignore.  Now that it was growing dark outside and there had been no further contact with the outside world, agitated apprehension had begun trickling back into their mood.

"Why didn't the black note happen again?"  Minoko's words were uneven, but Evan could detect a hint of exasperated relief despite the shaky tone and her natural accent.  Before, time had been unmarked and unacknowledged.  Now the day had completely passed with no evident attempt to mount another rescue.  One's mind naturally concocted unwelcome explanations to address such facts.

"The aliens must have abducted everyone they wanted."  Ryan crunched into a graham cracker and spoke, sprinkling tiny crumbs into his immediate vicinity.  "They must have gone back to their spaceship, so we're safe."

"...we probably are."  Evan's agreement came out like molasses, having considered denying the tentative assertion.  He didn't think it would be good to contravene what miniscule sense of relief that notion might provide to others.  As long as it was dark outside, they ought to remain concealed anyway; there was no reason to further dissolve their somewhat relaxed ease.  Even so, they shouldn't chance lives on such speculation.  "But we should still consider our options to escape.  There's still zombies out there and we can't stay here forever."

There was a momentary period of nervous silence as those assembled waited for the encroaching night to swallow the final traces of sunlight.  Almost concurrent with twilight, the rain which had been hammering down most of the day had subsided into a fine misting drizzle.  The faint, soothing patter on pavement and sidewalk provided some anchoring connection to Portland normalcy in the near pitch darkness.  Without electricity the building was cold, but not uncomfortably so while bundled in heavy coats.

Light came from the nearby hallway, intensely bright for a moment just before dimming quite noticeably.  Leon shuffled into the small space with his hand mostly covering the glowing source.  Selecting for himself a nearby clear area on the floor, he clicked the beam off before carefully sitting.  "Zack ate and drank something and went back to sleep.  He lost a lot of blood so he's still tired, but he should be okay."

"Thank you, again."  A figure that was Jennifer reached over to touch Leon upon the shoulders in a partial embrace.  "For coming here."

"Just glad to be a help."  Leon made a gesture in the dark that may have been a shrug.

A few seconds of welcome calm persisted before Ryan broke the reverie.  "So what do you think is going on out there?"

"Doesn't seem to be much of anything happening right now."  Evan unscrewed a bottle of water and took a sip.  His thoughts uncomfortably shifted to the few cases of liquids they had access to.  If they were careful, their water and food should be able to last the six of them for about a week, but he suspected the people in the Blackwood building were not as fortunately stocked.  "There don't seem to be any more zombies around right now and we haven't heard anything out there."

"Not around here.  The rest of the world, dude."  Ryan spoke between noisy crunches.  "Do you think the aliens are attacking anywhere else?  How do you think the rest of the world is reacting to all this?"

"They're fighting back."  Jennifer replied after a few seconds.

"Yeah."  Leon added.  "And since it's obvious these creatures have some kind of knockout weapon, the military is going to quickly realize they have to fight them from a distance with drones or something like that."

"Or just nuke them wherever they land."  Ryan posited.  He had a peculiar unawareness of the unease such an idea presented to those gathered.

"That doesn't seem very likely."  The idea they could be obliterated via nuclear fire (as an action for the benefit of humanity at large) had crossed Evan's mind as well.  But he didn't consider it worth ruminating over.  Escape was already their primary collective goal, so that possibility wasn't anything he could prepare for or do anything about.  Since they would be at ground zero for such an event worrying about it would be pointless.

"Yeah, if the aliens have spaceships in orbit, hitting a small group of them on the ground won't really accomplish much except kill a lot more people than invaders.  I don't know what can really be done about a ship in outer space- I don't think anyone has missiles designed to hit something up there."  Leon speculated.  "They're going to have to do something special about those."

"But they're going to stop them."  Jennifer asserted.

"Oh, yeah, I bet they're already thinking about how to find them out there and shoot them all down."  Leon added.

"Yeah, man.  That is going to be so awesome."  Ryan replied.

Evan wasn't quite as confident much could actually be done about creatures in a spaceship who could apparently create zombies and trivially make an entire army fall unconscious in the blink of an eye.  Such actions far beyond human ability- not to mention coming to Earth from the void beyond- implied other feats of power they were hopelessly incapable of matching.

Yet on an optimistic note, from what he had observed during the chaos inflicted by the black note, rigorous military discipline successfully held order amongst the soldiers at the least.  If it was true anything productive could be done, those in charge might be able to do it.

"Anyway,"  Evan began.  "We should probably get some rest for tomorrow.  When the sun comes up, we should be working out an escape plan."

"Yeah, the military is probably going to be too busy fighting the aliens to help us."  Ryan's grin could be heard in his voice, sounding almost wistful as he no doubt reflected on the awesome nature of beating back an alien invasion force with lasers and missiles.

Despite the consuming shadows now concealing what- if anything- laid directly outside, the atmosphere within the enclave was still surprisingly relaxed.  While they all knew forces were at work far beyond their ability to handle, an objective and a clear goal in mind somewhat limited the extent of their despair.

Disbanding with only minimal further use of light, the refugees secluded themselves away for rest and to await the fresh dawn.  Upon arising with the morning light, the relaxed atmosphere rapidly died as a fresh horde of death thrashed at the iron barrier outside.

Unnatural Consequences

Lucas savored the sensation of empty isolation the broad shadowy chamber provided, idly watching the outside storm and listening to the soothing, muted patter of the rainfall's variation.  It was a rather welcome relief after being a helpless witness to abject stupidity and panic.

Terror of the unknown curtailed the dormitory population's usual clamor, for the time being.  Those few who entered the common chamber mostly arrived to momentarily peer out the windows or collect some tap water from the faucet.  Lucas ignored most everyone who arrived, thinking, mostly idly staring out the windows while others were near.

Now and then someone would enter and be shocked the curtains were drawn wide.  Without asking, they would spend some time securing the drapes, but apparently still agitated would leave only minutes after the completion of their task.  Once they departed, Lucas would rise from his seat and proceed to undo the efforts.

Once Lucas returned to his place on the couch from such a visit, Chloe spoke again.  "So what do you think of that warning we got about the whistling and snapping?"

"The thing Evan was talking about?"  Lucas turned to face Chloe nearby, but soon gazed out the window beyond her.  "None of the zombies have made any sounds like that and so far they haven't been very different from one another.  So apparently there is something else out there besides the zombies.  And Evan thinks it would also be interested in us if it could see us in here."

"Aren't you worried, then?"  Chloe projected a rather relaxed attitude on her surface.  Yet occasional wide-eyed surveys of the scenery through the big windows betrayed a rather obvious apprehension at being openly visible.  As much as they were visible from outside with the miniscule presence of light.

"It's more interesting than it is scary.  Besides, we haven't heard any sounds like that so far."  Lucas casually mentioned.  "Plus, we already basically knew something like that was going on.  Since the blackout event originated from the sky, the zombies couldn't have been the source of that bursting radiation.  At least now we have a better idea of what may be behind this."

"So you're thinking the same force created both the blackout radiation and the z-rays, then."

"Aliens."  Lucas grinned as he gestured with his hands.  Chloe had little reaction to the declaration other than a disapproving glare.  "Though I guess technically the zombies are alien life too.  So these would be different aliens, besides the zombies."

"The zombies are aliens now?"  Chloe produced an exasperated sigh but responded to her own statement after a moment's consideration.  "Well, I guess superficially, zombies reproduce similarly to how a virus does.  So if you were feeling generous, that would at least make them as much a form a life as a virus is."

"Sure.  Only a virus hijacks one cell at a time to create new copies of itself so it can enter more cells.  These things hijack entire brains so they can infect more brains."  Lucas pondered how best to present his more absurd ruminations.  "How that process actually works is a mystery, but if you think of them as a form of life that would make some ability to detect conscious brains make a sort of sense.  Such an ability would be immensely useful to spread and survive in the wild.  Not that we really have the evidence yet to verify that.  But like I said before, it makes a sort of sense."

"So if something out there did create the zombies, what would be the purpose for it?  Are they trying to kill us?"

"Maybe.  We don't know how the z-rays were formed, but if they were difficult enough to create, they might not be able to fire enough of them at our planet to kill all of us.  But there's another possible motivation."  Lucas drew in a steady breath of air before continuing.  "Besides the brain thing, we know the zombies operate by some unknown physics we have no prior knowledge about.  They are so completely alien to us they don't even rely on the same physical forces we do."

Chloe shifted in the big armchair, leisurely crossing one leg over the other.  "You're referring to how they are able to move around even with major blood loss."

"Exactly.  Movement without access to oxygen shouldn't be possible according to modern knowledge.  But since they are moving, we know something we don't quite understand must be happening inside a zombie's body.  After all, the energy to move still has to come from somewhere.  It can't just appear out of nothing."

"Maybe it can.  I mean, if it were coming from nowhere, that would explain it too."  Chloe offered before giving another wide-eyed peer to the outside world.

"Sure that's possible- I guess- but it's possible in the same way that it's possible the Earth is flat and we've just been very wrong thinking it's a spheroid this entire time.  It's way more likely that the energy is just coming from somewhere we aren't noticing."  Lucas paused as a man and woman arrived to collect a quantity of water from the tap in empty jugs.  After it became apparent what they were doing, Lucas ignored them and resumed his reasoning in a quiet voice.  "Anyway, we can't really run the tests necessary to eliminate all the other possibilities, but consider this.  What if they were pulling the energy from some other place entirely?"

"You mean like a wormhole?"

"Exactly.  Whatever the zombie effect actually does with a conscious brain, we still don't know.  But if the z-rays were somehow interacting with the machinery of consciousness to open a tiny wormhole network, maybe they could siphon energy from those wormholes directly into the muscles of their bodies, so they no longer require oxygen to move.  Then when the brain becomes damaged, that linkage is destroyed.  Hence the zombie just goes back to being a regular dead body after that."

"So, you think the zombies were created- or seeded here by these other aliens in order to create wormholes?"  Chloe arched her eyebrows skeptically as she finished the line of reasoning Lucas was about to deliver.  "That's even crazier than what you said before."

"It is.  But zombies existing at all are pretty crazy to begin with."  Lucas nudged at the frame of his glasses and brushed his hair with one hand.  "But if you could discover some method to increase the size of these wormholes, it might be possible to use this form of life as a basis of space travel.  So this could also explain why there appears to be a new type of entity out there that produces clicks and whistles.  And why that sound seems associated with another new phenomenon."

"If someone threatened to destroy your gateway, you'd defend it."  Chloe leaned forwards and rubbed her temples.  "So the thing that knocked us out may have been part of this second alien's strategy of defending the gateway it had constructed for itself.  Sort of like a flare or firework shot into the sky so it would spread the radiation over as broad an area as possible."

"Right.  So there could be an open wormhole somewhere inside the city."  Lucas exhaled and slouched on the couch, looking away from outside for a bit to stare at the ceiling tiles.  Although it was certainly possible there were other explanations, none as elegantly concise were readily apparent to him.

Another expanse of watery silence suffused the cavernous chamber.  Ears strained to listen to the conditions outside for a moment, but still no strange noises became apparent.  Lucas knew what he had proposed was quite strange, but he couldn't get the implications of the concept out of his mind.

Sighing with resigned boredom, Lucas wished he had some direct investigative route to pursue with the ample time available.  Waiting around was intolerable when the limitless possibilities of interstellar exploration loomed on the horizon.  But with the Internet gone, there was little he could do to discern plausible theory from wild shot in the dark.

Even if another zombie arrived, everyone else in the building would likely be too scared to perform any sort of experiments with it.  And if something strange was visible from the rooftop, he hadn't noticed it before when he was there.  Not that he even knew what he would be looking for.  Beyond that, it was certainly a bad idea to go outside looking for the theoretical wormhole.

"It's been a while since one of those blackout flares."  Chloe observed flatly.

"Yeah."  After a momentary delay, Lucas shot bolt upright to look into Chloe's eyes.  "Hey, wait a minute!"

"Do you hear something?"  Chloe's white eyes stood out starkly against her slate skin, a startled look draping the sharp features of her face.

"We have a way to measure that blackout radiation!  If we find out where everyone was standing in the building during each burst of radiation and whether they passed out or remained conscious, we might be able to learn something."  The data was already around to collect and examine.  Doing such a thing seemed pretty unlikely to be protested by the residents.  And best of all, it would give Lucas something to do with the plodding stretches of time while waiting.

With little convincing needed to attain assistance, Chloe was quickly recruited to help gather the available data.

Public Information

"Would you like me to take you back to your dorm now?"  Evan asked as Leon announced he was finished and stashed the remaining bandages in the medical kit.  Zack had been propped up against the wall with his arm in a fabricated splint.  The blood nearby had been carefully cleaned and disposed of in a nearby waste bin.

"One sanctuary is as good to me as any other."  Leon emitted an exhausted sigh as he returned to inspect his patient.

"What if someone in your building needs help?"  Zack posited, barely able to keep his head up.

"They'll be fine.  It's not like I was the only one around with some experience in this sort of thing."  Leon shrugged.  "Besides, if whatever that thing was is going to strike again, I'd rather not risk being caught outside."

"I'd rather not risk standing."  Ryan contributed from a sitting position just by the stairway.  While Leon was busy tending to Zack's wounds, he had been jangling the set of keys for the building in his hands.  But at some point he had apparently grown bored with the activity and set them in his lap instead.  "You know, in case we hear that black note again soon."

Those few who weren't already in a seated position took one throughout the small chamber.  Minoko had been sitting morosely by the elevator, her knees drawn up against her chest and arms folded around them.  Jennifer sat with her in some meek attempt to raise her spirits.  Leon had not directly exchanged words with the Japanese girl, but in an apologetic glance it was clearly evident he was aware of what must have transpired.  Uneven silence reigned as the hiss of water surged against the building.

Recollections of those phantasmal sounds in a lifeless world gnawed at Evan's mind as time trickled onwards.  The spectacle of shredded vehicles and discarded possessions felt like a distant memory.  Whether the malevolent entities generating the clicking whistles would return should that cascading chord once more shake the foundations of reality was his primary concern.

The paradoxical serenity was interrupted as Ryan's curiosity and boredom overcame him.  "So dude, did you see aliens or something while you were running around out there?"

Evan was momentarily caught off guard by the blunt question.  "What?"

"You told me I should get everyone to hide if I heard strange noises.  So what did you find out there to make you say that?"

During the sedate interlude, Evan had been thinking about how best to inform the others of what he had discovered.  They had a right to know remaining within the zone of that odd phenomenon might be dangerous.  Perhaps it would even be best to attempt to flee rather than wait for whatever natural resolution would arrive to greet those choosing to hide.  Either way, he didn't feel right making that decision for others.  Yet he knew the kind of disorganized panic such knowledge created prior.  Responsibility made him feel hesitant to put his thoughts to speech.  "There's something else out there.  Something besides just the zombies."

"Dude, just say what it is you saw."  Ryan replied with rapt fascination.

The others present were too weary from the recent ordeal of their shared experiences to respond.  Their faces revealed little terror or surprise at the declaration. Perhaps- Evan thought- his trepidation to speak to his current audience had been unnecessary.  Nobody appeared energetic enough for a compulsive desire for escape to override good sense.  So Evan explained his observations, from the unearthly sounds to the empty street laden with torn metal.  As indirect as the evidence had been, everyone seemed convinced what they had to mean.

"So what do we do now?"  Jennifer asked once Evan's explanation concluded.

"Dude!"  Ryan seemed more excited than anything else.  He had an awed look on what was visible of his face through his greasy hair.  "Aliens are abducting people!"

"It seems so."  Zack exhaled heavily and closed his eyes, as if speaking drained his reserves of energy.

Evan finally allowed himself a moment to breathe.  He was glad to have the private burden of such knowledge lifted from his mind.  "Yes.  So now we have to decide what we're going to do."

"If they stun us while we're escaping, we would be helpless.  Plus the zombies are still around so they could also attack us while we're out there."  Leon spoke thoughtfully as he stroked his hand over his shaved head.  "But since whatever is out there can tear its way through metal, we probably aren't going to be safe inside if it comes this way and discovers that we're in here."

"Hey, you said you didn't hear those whistles after the second black note, right?"  Ryan spoke, watching Evan nod thoughtfully.  "Maybe that means they're heading away from us."

"Could be."  Evan didn't much like the idea of betting upon such a notion, but he couldn't really critique it either.  Without more knowledge, every decision would be a gamble.  "We could stay here and hide if we hear those whistling noises approaching.  It's kind of hard to describe.  It sounds almost musical, actually."

"Then shouldn't we remain here?"  Jennifer suggested.  "If these aliens or whatever are heading in the other direction, we'll at least still be safe from any zombies still around."

"Yeah."  Ryan shrugged.  "Besides, even if we did have a way to escape on our own, we could still be knocked out by another black note.  It's probably better just to wait for the army to return and rescue us."

"Maybe we should still try to figure out some kind of escape plan."  Leon scratched at his chin, looking at the floor in front of himself as he thought aloud.  "We have no idea how long it will take for all this to end.  What if they end up not coming back for us?"

Nobody quite knew how to respond to that, so there was no immediate follow-up to the speculation.

Jennifer frowned as she finally sighed.  "It's not like we have weapons to defend ourselves with or even a working vehicle.  So what could we actually do to prepare for escape on our own?"

"There's a car a few blocks away."  Minoko's small voice contributed as she produced a set of keys from her pocket.  "We could maybe take a few people at a time out of the city."

"Bad idea, dude."  Ryan commented.  "If the black note happens while you're driving, you'll just end up wrecking the car."

"What if we wait until the tone hits us again?"  Evan considered.  "If a couple of us were to go outside just then, maybe we could be sure it wouldn't strike again for at least as long as the effect lasts.  That would give us several minutes at the very least."

"If it happens again."  Jennifer revised the unstated assumption.

"Then what?  Drive out of the city?"  Ryan shook his head.  "It doesn't last long enough to really drive anywhere."

"It doesn't need to.  Just park it outside so it wouldn't be so far away."  Evan exhaled slowly, thinking about those lost weapons strewn along the desolate street.  If he had been thinking at the time he could have retrieved some of them.  Unfortunately, if any were still around, retrieving them during a ticking clock was probably a bad idea.  "All we're doing is trying to come up with some kind of escape option in case we need one later on."

"As long as there aren't any zombies outside at the time, that sounds like a pretty decent plan."  Leon glanced through the glass into the rainy corridor outside.  Nothing yet waited for them at the gate.

Evan met Minoko's eyes with his own.  "The next time that black note hits us, do you think you could lead the way to where that car is?"

Minoko drew in a deep breath, her voice hitching in her throat.  Instead of speaking, she replied with a solemn nod.  An expectant silence came afterwards, as the group waited in dreadful anticipation for a followup black note.

As the minutes turned to hours, uncomfortable chatter began to fill the void of uneasy solitude.  A dry meal and water were shared out amongst the gathered supplies.  Zack was carefully transported to a nearby room to recuperate in a soft bed, the window curtains bound shut in paranoia.  The rainstorm outside faltered now and then and occasionally halted but never quite entirely ended as the day marched onwards in seclusion.

No third black note arrived before the early winter sunset blot out most available light.  But thankfully the tones of that dreadful alien entity (or entities) did not return either.

Tentative Hypothesis

Lucas hated being in crowds.  Worse yet, he hated having important things to say when nobody would listen.  Just before, the only viable course of action was refused on the basis that nobody would believe him.  Those who were outside were incredibly fortunate that Evan was still in the area.  Also, once they returned, their terror made them finally realize that their only viable course of action was to wait.

Once news of Evan's cryptic warning propagated, the common room was fearfully abandoned by the building's residents in favor of lightless hallways or personal areas.  Many tall, broad windows lining the left and right walls of the chamber allowed murky light to spill inside.  The curtains were drawn wide apart, revealing unblinking eyes open to the desolate world.  But there was acute awareness the broad surfaces would allow a watcher to gaze in just as easily.  A slight mismatch between the floor in here and the outside meant the windows were about five feet off the ground.

That suited Lucas just fine, now that he had a relatively isolated space to contemplate.  It was even fairly quiet in here, so any atypical sounds should be easy to notice.  Just in case whatever the warning was about came to pass.  It was rather unfortunate Evan had not remained around to explain further, but Lucas knew that meant he had something important to attend to.

"Okay, so the infected don't attack each other.  I understand that."  Chloe tentatively entered the common area and glanced around the abandoned, shadowy domain.  She crept cautiously around various furnishings as the door drifted closed behind her.  "Why do you think that means they can see consciousness?"

"You mean besides that zombie not choosing to attack the people who were passed out?"  Lucas turned to watch her approach from his place on the couch near the powerless television.

"Yeah.  It seems way more likely to me that she just somehow didn't notice them laying there."  Chloe delicately removed her rain coat and draped it over the back of a nearby chair.  She then walked around and sat in a soft armchair beside the couch.

"Well, it also agrees with all the other information we have about the undead."

"Would you mind explaining your reasoning there?"

"It makes a sort of sense if you think about their traits."  Lucas hesitated, unsure how best to proceed with his line of thinking.  He realized it had to sound pretty out there.  Despite having come up with the notion and considering it yesterday, he still had a hard time believing it could be true.  "To start with, they only target living humans and not each other.  So there has to be something they are keying in on."

"Animals can recognize others of their kind.  Maybe that's what's going on."  Chloe suggested.  "Some kind of instinct that's triggering in the infected, directing them to attack people while neglecting those who are behaving the same way they are."

"That's what I figured too at first.  But remember, we also have pretty solid information about z-rays.  Even though it happened only the one time that we know about, we can be reasonably confident it struck random locations all over the planet.  Actually, that's probably the single most reliable bit of information we have about this phenomenon so far."

"What does that have to do with some ability to detect consciousness?"

"Not anything directly.  But remember how you pointed out to me that z-rays didn't appear to strike animals?"  Lucas paused a moment to direct his attention outside for a few seconds.  Despite recent events, the storm had a familiar, soothing quality about it.  "We do know that probably isn't technically true, considering what little we do know about the strikes of z-rays.  What is more likely to have happened is that the z-rays also hit some animals, but it produced no effect on them."

"So animals are immune to z-rays, but humans are not.  What, because animals aren't conscious and humans are?"

"Animals are conscious, but the sort of awareness they have is not nearly as intricate as the type of consciousness a human has."  Lucas shrugged.  "Anyway, because just now the unconscious people were missed, it seems likely that is the primary factor of the difference."

"Seems like kind of a stretch."

"Maybe it is.  It could be something else."  Lucas halted there, then added after a lapse in the conversation.  "But consider this.  Whatever else this plague is doing, we know it halts once the brain is damaged or destroyed."

"So, if the brain is no longer suitable for whatever the infection does to someone, it will cease.  And if it wasn't ever suitable to begin with the disease won't begin doing whatever it does in the first place."  Chloe thoughtfully concluded.

"Right, so animal brains aren't sufficient to produce the zombie effect."  Not long ago, Lucas had privately speculated about how an undead could be tricked into biting an animal.  A careful test could provide more evidence to support the immunity hypothesis, but he had no capability of performing such an experiment.  Lucas chortled as he added.  "They want to eat our brains.  It should have been more obvious, really."

Unfortunately, Chloe was not nearly as amused by the conclusion.  "Okay.  Let's say the disease is affecting the brain like that.  So how do you get from there to some sort of magical power to directly observe consciousness?"

"Well, remember that we're trying to think of what those things are detecting that makes us valid targets yet also does not prompt them to attack one another.  They must have some means of recognizing what targets can become a suitable carrier.  Even if the only targets they might choose among also have a human shape."

Chloe nodded a bit to that, obviously baffled he didn't elucidate further.  "Yeah?"  Maybe when they still had access to the Internet, she hadn't watched many of the videos showing the zombie attacks.  The video evidence he perused were suggestive that their ability to distinguish was inerrant and consistent among their peers.

"So, that's the question.  What is actually the difference between us and them that they could be responding to?"

"The- uh, zombies move differently.  And they make that annoying sound."

"So if someone does those things, would the zombies ignore them?"

"I wouldn't want to bet on it."

"Right.  But we could still run an experiment.  Try acting like one of them with only one person nearby and see if it's still interested in them."  Lucas raised his arms up and jerked about in his seat to illustrate the mimicry.

"Uh- Did you do that?"  Chloe smirked a bit, evidently bemused by the absurdity of such a ruse, despite her usual stoic mood.

"Well, no.  It might be a good idea if someone did attempt that, though.  Just to eliminate that possibility."  Lucas regret missing the opportunity only a little, after all, he was already fairly confident such a scheme would not succeed.  Nobody else seemed willing to indulge such curiosities, which made experimentation like that in the crowded dormitory impossible.  "But the blackout that just hit those people outside was a similar sort of experiment.  It tested whether or not people who were unconscious would be targeted."

"What if it just ignored them because they appeared to be dead?"

"That's a pretty good question.  We could test whether they respond to motion by having someone pretend they were dead, or by having someone sleep close to one and see if the zombie eventually loses interest in them."  Again, Lucas recalled the videos from the Internet he had been able to examine the previous day.  It was hard to be certain from the evidence he had studied, but such a ploy didn't seem to work for at least one unfortunate victim who had attempted such a tactic.  "But the question you should be asking is why they would respond differently to a body they encounter whether or not it is dead."

"If someone is dead, then the brain isn't going to be intact, so the disease wouldn't have what it needs for the infection to do whatever it does."

"Yes, so it does make sense why they wouldn't waste time with a dead brain.  But how could they possibly realize a brain is dead?  They don't appear to have any cognitive awareness or intelligence, and determining that would take a person at least a few seconds of time.  But they still focus on something that guides them only to conscious humans and not to each other."  And likely not to the dead either, Lucas thought to himself.

Chloe frowned, thinking about the question in silence.  An interlude of peace over which the assaulting storm was the dominating ambiance persisted.  "I don't know if I entirely agree with that.  But I guess if it just ignored the people who passed out because it thought they were dead, your plan still would have worked."

"Well, the next time a zombie shows up, we could perform some of those experiments to see what happens.  If I'm right, a zombie should only lose interest in someone if they are asleep."

"That sounds like a pretty good idea."

A pensive, austere calm permeated the surroundings for quite some time after that.

Fortunate Break

Evan ran through the rain once more, armed with the implement he had already used once before to dispose of the undead.  The heavy rainfall had somewhat cleansed the blade and handle of the fire axe, but it was unlikely the tool's edge could have benefited from exposure to the downpour.  Although he had only taken it as a compromise for others to be reassured of his safety, he was soon comforted by the weight of the implement in his bare hands.

Within the park blocks, the walkways were eerily calm, despite the recent chaos of the rescue attempt's sudden breakdown.  Since the outer perimeter of the army's presence had primarily been along the actual roads, there were no bodies or wreckage in the tree-dotted and grassy walkways.  Better yet, there was no trace of those unnerving, faint sounds he had heard after the previous event.  These things proved to be of only temporary reassurance, however.

Just as not long before, there were no active pedestrians anywhere in sight.  Arriving on the park blocks, Evan turned along the concrete walkway to proceed up the gentle slope.  He slowed his pace as he noticed an unfamiliar woman energetically challenging the Blackwood building's door.  She had not noticed him, but still he strove to remain cautious as he advanced further up the mild hill.  He had no initial idea whether she was a survivor or whether other zombies lingered nearby, eager to ambush once his presence was detected.

Proceeding cautiously but still retaining his sense of urgency, Evan approached, drawing to the end of the adjacent building and spying a number of downed figures upon the ground near the building's entrance.  Now about a hundred feet away, he began to notice the characteristic wailing groans of the infected above the harsh masking effect produced by the rain.

Evidently, the military had not managed to expunge all of their intended targets from the area.  With faint tension in his muscles, Evan examined the surrounding roads and walkways again to ensure there was only the one.  Briefly, he deliberated over whether gaining its attention would be better than sneaking around from behind it in some hopes of a surprise assault.  It did not take him long to consider that the familiar approach would probably be safest.  Not to mention profoundly more expeditious.  "Hey!  You!"

The vocalization managed to turn the undead woman's attention.  It proceeded in the usual reckless charge, heedless of the weaponry Evan possessed.  In the scant moments while the gap between them diminished, he remained motionless and impassive, waiting for the precise moment to react.  Wet, grasping fingers reached out for him as the zombie anticipated the final gap closing.

With familiar, fluid motions he had used in a previous fight, Evan leapt out of the path of the grasping arms and swung the bladed implement at the head of the monster.  It barely connected with a loud crack, just skidding along the skull, rending scalp and grey hair from sturdy bone.  Despite the indirect blow, the force of the strike sent the figure tumbling onto the uneven ground.

A couple of rapid steps forward and a forceful downwards strike partially cracked the skull, allowing a thick black substance to ooze onto the pavement.  Pulling back cautiously, Evan held the weapon ready for another strike, but once no further attempts to move followed, he allowed himself a moment to breathe.  Holding the end of the weapon away from himself, Evan turned in place, deftly peering around for other signs of danger.

Ensuring the immediate environment was clear of easily spotted hazards, Evan examined his rain jacket and pants for traces of infected blood.  What little quantity had managed to get on the arms of his overcoat were quickly washing away in rivulets of fresh water.  Minor viscera upon the weapon itself was likewise rapidly sloughing off in the steady rainfall.  Holding the weapon in a downwards grip away from himself, Evan hoped the rain would wash away the new spatters of blood.

Blackwood's clear doors parted as Evan resumed his steady approach.  Leon's nervous face peeking out and peering towards him in awe, then turning to examine the surrounding area.  He spoke a few words to those inside and stepped out into the rain while Evan jogged forwards, closing the gap to a casual speaking range.  "Hey, Leon!  Someone in my building has a broken bone."

Leon had approached one of the figures on the ground as a few other residents emerged from the safety of their building.  "First, we need to-"  Leon looked up, but halted as the nearby drenched forms began to produce noises and rise.  "Whoa, stop!"

Still on edge from the undead confrontation, Evan's immediate impulse was to stride forwards for a killing swing, but he restrained himself before completing the full motion.  It appeared that not everyone had been sheltered for this blackout, although what they were doing outside and spread apart at the time wasn't immediately obvious.  Evan lowered the implement and took a deep breath to steady his nerves.

Voices despaired at the disorienting event; a few limbs or sides cradled tenderly as obvious stinging pains inhibited bruised muscle or scraped flesh.  Bulky coats apparently provided padding enough that more severe injuries were evidently rare.  Many present were cajoling those outside to quickly return and declaring it would be safer inside.  A shouted warning called out by someone in the area indicated the dispatched zombie had arrived from the direction those outside had attempted to flee.

To escape was an understandable instinctive response to the overwhelming unknown forces assailing them.  Had Evan not felt the anchoring presence of responsibility, it might have been a course of action that he would have partaken in.  Of course, it would still be wise to leave very soon if it was at all possible, but Evan was only interested if he could somehow ensure everyone would be going with him.

Lucas stood close to the doorway nearby, shouting to those who had come outside.  "Whatever created the blackout is further away from us now!"  Apparently, Evan thought to himself, he wasn't the only one to notice that something else had been nearby.  Learning of confirmation that whatever it had been was indeed more distant was more reassuring than merely relying on his senses alone.

Those sources of information- or perhaps the limping gaits shared by many- convinced those outside to abandon their flight.  Many of them were nursing rather severe scrapes to limbs or their face, but fortunately nobody seemed to be critically injured.  Heavy coats made for good padding.  A sudden hush fell over those outside as they evidently realized they were quite vulnerable.

With the distraction clearing, Evan once again approached Leon, who was some distance further away, assisting Jorge in walking back to the entrance of the dormitory.  Jorge wiped away blood that was dripping into his eyes from a cut on his forehead and limped as he walked.  "Do you know how to handle a broken bone?"

"Yes."  Leon momentarily met Evan's eyes as they walked alongside one another.  "Who needs help?"

"Someone in my dorm, it's not far from here.  He broke his arm just a few minutes ago."

Leon looked a little hesitant at the prospect of travelling away.  "I can help with that.  Do you have a medical kit there?"

"We do."

"Something awful is out there."  Jorge mumbled as they closed the gap to the front doors.  "We have to leave."

"Wait until the blackouts stop.  Then we can worry about escape."  Evan had no inkling of what they could feasibly do, but it appeared obvious no retreat would be sensible until after that arbitrary milestone.  Hopefully, someone would return to sort this out or at least aid them before things became desperate.

Or before something even worse transpired.

Nobody else called out or spoke a word as they approached the doorway.  Pausing just beside the entrance, Evan called into the dormitory as Leon guided Jorge into the building.  "If any of you hears something strange outside, get everybody out of sight from the windows and hide."

"What?"  Chloe was standing just nearby the door, eyes wide with alarm.  "What would we hear?"  She wasn't the only one with such an expression.

"Anything!"  Evan sternly voiced his command.  "Snapping, whistling.  I don't have time to explain.  Just keep away from the doors and windows if you notice anything unusual going on."

Evan took the anxious silence as acceptance and waved his free hand to Leon.  "Let's get going.  I don't want to be out here any longer than I have to be."

Leon had a dour expression on his face, but followed Evan.

Natural Experiment

Lucas sat in near pitch darkness, occasionally listening idly to brief snippets of discussion taking place within the lobby below.  He had taken a seated position on the final step to the second floor.  His laughing outbursts had been subdued, but only because he tried to ignore the statements of blind terror people were using to justify egregiously idiotic ideas.  Despite his earlier contributions, he wasn't terribly interested in the emerging coalition of whom was deciding to leave and remain.

He only didn't return to his room for the slight possibility he might be able to glean additional information about the blackout anomaly.  While people were quite freaked out by the event, nobody seemed to have any further data about it than their initial observations; some of those inside buildings were not hit and everyone outside was hit.  Like the z-rays before, only minimal details of its effects were known.  Other descriptive qualities seemed difficult if not impossible to intuit.

Just as he was about to abandon that idea, Lucas's spine turned to jelly, limbs drooping as the muscles lost tension.  Coinciding with it came that vaguely eerie tone, again permeating all the universe as he could feel it pressing into him like a vice.  The unreal noise had an intangible weight about it, impossible to describe or even memorize, it was a sensation that should not be possible.  And then it was just as suddenly absent.

No flash arrived.  No echo lingered.  Spasming with surprise, Lucas was just able to catch himself on his forearms before falling backwards and hitting his head on the floor.  At the same time, he kicked his legs, almost dislodging himself from the stairs and sliding down but narrowly preventing the clumsy accident.  A scream tearing through darkness confirmed Lucas was not the only one still conscious.

Shouts of alarm or cries of pain rang out, many of those nearby startled or aching from the temporary collapse.  Rising to his feet, Lucas descended the stairs slowly to examine the chamber for others who remained awake.

"That was it again, wasn't it?"  Erin's voice was familiar and close enough to make out clearly amidst the initial bursts of shouting.

"Yes."  Chloe glanced momentarily at Lucas as he descended into view in the trace lighting available through the broad windows.  "That was it.  Just like the last time."

There were fewer people here than prior, but quickly inspecting those remaining in the chamber with great curiosity, nobody had fainted.  Although some were now sitting in dry spaces on the floor.  Curiously, Leon and Simon were standing immediately adjacent to the glass doors.  Lucas quickly reached the bottom steps and peered around with wide eyes to reaffirm the initial observation.  "Hey, Leon!"  Lucas cautiously approached, keeping clear of Simon.

Leon was rubbing at his left forearm with his other hand and shakily standing against the glass wall beside the door.  "Oh.  Hi again."  He regarded Lucas with a friendly nod; it looked like he had gained a minor cut and bruises on his arm.  Many of those present were clearly still rather disoriented and perturbed by the event.

"Were you guys standing right there just now?"  Lucas asked with thoughts of Jorge's testimony fresh in his mind.  If nobody in the building was knocked out this time, it could mean the phenomenon causing the knockout was further away.  Or weaker.  Either situation would be good to alleviate peoples' mindless terror, but better than that, it meant the event wasn't a singularly unique one like the z-rays had been.  It might even be possible to learn more about this phenomenon via deliberate experimentation.

"Hold on a second."  Leon stated passively, failing to give any attention to Lucas.  Leon carefully leaned into the door, pushing it open slowly while peering around cautiously.  "Yeah, it got them."  He tentatively proceeded a couple steps while holding the door, examining the surroundings with frenetic worry before looking back into the lobby.  "Come on, someone help me with this."  Leon motioned to someone maybe a dozen feet away.

Lucas followed Leon outside and at his direction, feebly assisted in lifting the nearest woman.  She was a somewhat chubby blond woman that seemed vaguely familiar to Lucas.  Carrying her legs as Leon lifted just under her arms, they slowly walked back, Erin approaching to help them by holding one door ajar.  A man Lucas didn't recognize had joined their efforts with obvious trepidation, peering around for signs of danger.

Just as they were about to step outside again, Erin froze and spoke just loud enough to be heard over the patter of the rain.  "Someone else is out here."  Nervous energy spilling over the edges of her voice.  "She's-"

"Oh shit!  Inside!"  Called out the man while dashing into the opening.  Erin retreated an instant behind him as the doors were hastily closed forcibly.  A lone figure rushed towards them, rattling the door as it strained to barge inside.

Stepping forwards, Lucas helped the many other bodies and hands bracing against and holding the doors firmly shut.  Leon rattled the key in the deadbolt mechanism as the undead assailant produced its unfortunately familiar distinctive wailing tone.  Finally, the lock slid into place with a welcome click, barring the undead from breaching the barrier.

Those gathered exhaled a sigh of relief as they stared at the undead abomination outside.  The woman was about middle aged with a heavy sweater and jeans and looked quite pale and sick, but she appeared to be otherwise free of injurious harm.  Up close there was obviously something wrong with her, but at a distance, it was difficult to tell.

"Well, I guess they're screwed now."  Simon exhaled deeply, still braced against the door, but relaxed slightly.  "Damn it.  That was way too close."

"She just walked right around the corner and started running once she saw us."  Erin blurted, an anxious edge to her tone.  "I thought she might have been alive."

There were a few seconds of agonizing tension.  Lucas paced along the broad, heavy windows taking up most of the wall and gazed outside.  "Wait a minute, she didn't attack any of the blackout people."  Lucas expressed the unexpected observation with a low voice, then stepped away to check on the status of the woman they had brought inside and laid down.  She was still breathing.

"They weren't attacked by the zombie?"  Came a reply from Erin, who was close enough to overhear his mumbling thought process.  "She didn't notice them!  They're still alive!"

"Oh, wow."  Leon added.  "Maybe it won't notice them while we're here providing a distraction."

Lucas passively slinked away from the front door as the others debated what they could do.  It seemed quite peculiar, but he knew the zombie had to have moved past the motionless bodies of those blackout victims.  There was no possible way the undead couldn't have seen so many people laying right in its path, it had to either step over or around them.  An insane possibility coalesced in his mind, synthesized out of the tidbits of information he possessed.

"What if she does notice them?"  Erin watched the thing scraping its teeth against the smooth glass.  "If she notices them they're going to die!"

"Too bad there's nothing we can do about it."  Chloe clenched her hands.

"They knew the risks they were taking when they went out there."  Simon stood impassively before the doors with his bulky frame.  "But if anyone wants to go out there and try to bash its brains in with a pipe, you could use the other exit."

"Don't look at me."  Chloe replied immediately.

"Maybe we could open the doors just a tiny bit and hit it through the crack."  Leon offered, motioning to one of the blunt implements propped on the nearby wall.  "Or let it reach inside and trap its arm in the door."

"No.  That's the dumbest plan ever."  Simon declared.

"I know what to do."  Lucas called out from the periphery.

"How can you not even consider it?"  Erin protested.

"Actually, I agree with Simon.  There's no way we're doing that."  Chloe crossed her arms.

To Lucas, it appeared as if those in the building were always yelling and arguing about something.  Nobody else even seemed to value learning more about the strange nature of what had been taking place around them.  It seemed like doing so should have been their first priority.

"Hey!  I know what will work."  Lucas yelled to interject over the impenetrable argument.  "Listen to me!  I know what we have to do!"

"What is it then?"  Erin asked as alarmed faces turned to Lucas.

"We all leave this room and go to the other door!"  Lucas had no idea how much time they had remaining.  His sense of urgency strained his ability to think of any concise explanation.

"Okay, that's an even more idiotic idea."  Simon turned away to study the zombie through the translucent barrier.

"Yeah.  It will just look around and notice them there once it can't see us."  Erin added.

"No it won't!  When it doesn't see us in here it will go around the building to the other door."  Lucas hastily added, without any idea of how to explain his reasoning quickly enough.  "They don't attack each other!  They aren't conscious and right now neither are the people outside!  That's why it didn't attack them!"

"Whatever."

Lucas was being ignored as the others resumed their own unproductive arguing.  Despite the wild nature of the assertion, he was almost certain of the conclusion.  It was simple, and it fit all the data he had.  The zombies were somehow capable of sensing human consciousness.

Rebounding

Evan stared out through the glass door, peering along the narrow exterior corridor as recent memories circled inside his mind.  Running alone through the streets trying to care for numerous paralyzed had been monumentally straining.  Once the sea of people had arisen, and begun to be confounded by direct- and obvious- evidence of the startling unknown, their organized shuffling decayed into mindless carnage.  Seconds of terror concluded with abrupt finality, and suddenly a voice of which he wasn't quite fully cognizant was barking orders.

There had been nothing he could imagine having done differently.  Even his drive to provide help may have ultimately led to the tragic flashpoint.  Walking alone in the aftermath through a rapidly emptying, dying world had been numbing.  Passively, his eyes had scanned around for something else to do, but everywhere he looked, everything had already been tried.  He could only trudge isolated and insensate through the aftermath.  As he had returned, he glimpsed faces he thought he recognized, but reflecting upon it now, he couldn't be sure.

With time, the overwhelming shock of the rapid experience had begun to gradually fade into a background disquiet.  Languishing in a state of disconnect, he gradually felt his sense of self returning.  At some point a towel had been draped over Evan's shoulders.  He sat in a folding metal chair in the Mansfield building's lobby, dripping water into a puddle at his feet.  Nearby, some people he knew were speaking to each other.

Realizing a fraction of his numbness was due to a watery chill, Evan stood to dry himself with the towel.  Those around him halted their conversation abruptly as they stared at him.  Zack and Jennifer stood not far to one side while Minoko sat solemnly in a chair at the corner beside the building's elevator.  Ryan sat in another chair beside Evan.

Jennifer was already at his side, gently touching at his shoulder.  "Evan?  Say something."

"I'm fine.  I'm okay."  Evan touched the towel to his damp clothing, noticing that there had already been considerable effort made to dry and warm him.  And clean off the blood he had on his hands.  In his disturbed state, he somehow hadn't noticed.  "Is anyone still out there?"

"They're all gone.  You were the only other one we know of who didn't get on a bus."  Jennifer embraced him despite the wet fabric.  Evan savored the intimate contact, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply as Jennifer's warmth pressed against him.  It helped immensely to soothe his frayed nerves.

"When everyone woke up things got real crazy out there."  Ryan added without rising from his seat.  "The others returned when the shooting started.  We thought you might have been shot."

The commentary was not addressed.  Silence dominated during an extended interlude, the familiar downpour of the storm providing a soothing white static.

Breaking away once he felt better, Evan gazed around at those around him and resumed attempts to remove excess moisture from his clothing.  It wasn't providing much relief.  "I'm okay.  I just need some dry clothes.  I'll be back in a few minutes."  He retrieved a nearby flashlight.

Jennifer hurried to keep pace with Evan as he journeyed into the shadowed stairwell.  When they had reached the third floor hallway, she spoke softly.  "Evan.  You know you can talk to me, right?"

"Yeah, I-"  Evan paused as his voice wavered, replaying in his mind how the attempted rescue had become a disaster in an instant.  "It just happened so fast.  I couldn't stop it."

"Shhh...  It's not your fault."  Jennifer embraced Evan once more, stroking his back with her hands.  "I'm sure you did everything possible.  But some things are beyond anyone's ability to control."

Firstly allowing himself some time to recover, Evan gently coaxed Jennifer to release and looked into her beautiful dark eyes.  "I'll be fine, really.  Thank you."  They resumed walking in peaceful silence, side by side.  Evan entered his room, emerging once he had dried with fresh clothing.  He came out wearing a thin raincoat.

Upon their return to the lobby, Ryan was pacing about the room slowly, something he had seemingly begun doing during Evan's absence.  Upon their return he looked to Evan.  "So dude, what happened out there?  Did the zombies attack while everyone was knocked out, or what?"

"No, I don't think so.  It-"  Silence dominated as Evan took a deep breath to steady himself again; he continued.  "I don't think I saw any zombies at all.  When everyone woke up, they just didn't know what had happened.  It was blind panic."

"One moment I was standing at the gate.  The next, I was just on the ground.  I've never had a blackout before."  Zack spoke idly as he passively watched the rain.  "Once I realized it had hit everybody, I felt this sudden urge to run.  Anyone could have been attacked by the zombies while we were out."

"I thought the same thing."  Minoko spoke for the first time in many minutes.

"At first, I thought you all became zombies."  Ryan added.  "Man, that was freaky to see you all suddenly get up at the same time."

Evan stared beyond the glass doorway and the gate into the street, recalling his discovery of twisted, peeled steel.  Thoughts of those barely audible, unearthly whistles and clacking snaps came rushing back to him.  The high pitched squeal of deforming metal.  The sight of discarded weapons strewn across the road as if their bearers had simply vanished.  Something else is out there and I heard it, whispered a compelling inner voice.

"So we're just waiting around here for them to come back, right?"  Ryan inquired.

"They said they would return when they could."  Zack stood beside the glass doorway, where he would occasionally peer towards gate at the end of the corridor.  "But they were probably just as alarmed by the blackout as we were.  Maybe they're going to come back after someone figures out what it was."

"Does anybody have any idea what that was?"  Jennifer asked to an uneasy silence.

"I don't know."  Evan mumbled to himself, thinking.  It was too easy to imagine gargantuan, amorphous figures peeling open vehicles like wrapping paper and carrying limp bodies away to a grisly fate.  There was good reason for the crowd's terror after all, even if there was no immediately visible threat.  Whether or not he imagined the sounds, the evidence left behind seemed clear enough.  "Something to stun us.  So we can't fight back."

"What?"  Jennifer asked from beside him.  "Fight back against wha-"

A sickeningly familiar, overwhelming trumpeting tone sliced through universe.  A wave of disorientation blasted through the environment, tipping Evan with a fluttering paralysis in every joint.  That sound again, he thought as he felt that strange tone threatening to peel him away from his body.  Presently, a sensation of floating, then its inexplicable sudden absence allowed him to regain his sense of place and balance.

It isn't over, a thought bubbled into Evan's conscious mind.  It was only the briefest moment of perceptible time, but the sickening familiarity of the event produced within him an urgent impulse for action.  Darting towards the doorway, he found it tightly sealed.

"Evan?"  Jennifer pushed herself upright upon the nearby wall where she had stumbled.  "What is it?"  Minoko remained solemnly silent where she had been sitting, but looked up, eyes wide with alarm.  Zack stumbled against the floor with a solid crack.

"Whoa, dude.  That feels really weird, man."  Ryan slumped halfway into a chair before adding.  "That was the same thing as the last time, wasn't it?"

Looking back at those within the small chamber; Evan observed the others were shaken and still regaining their composure after the momentary experience, but they were all still conscious.  He couldn't hear anything audible through the glass, but the door and distance to the street dampened perception along with the splashing rain.  "I need to listen."  He spoke as he retrieved the keys nearby and returned to unbolt the lock.

"Where are you going?"  Jennifer chased after Evan as he passed through the entryway.

"Stay here.  If something happens to me, run and hide.  I need to check on something."  Passing the keys to Jennifer, he proceeded towards the minimally visible section of street, his heart racing as he thought of how easily the iron gate could be ripped away by whatever scrapped the vehicles.

Listening through the hammering rain, Evan strained his hearing for the same noises he heard previously.  Even right beside the gate, there was nothing he could detect but the drizzling, stormy weather.  Seconds passed in desolate silence, but there remained no trace of those eerie whistles or snaps that he could discern beneath the rain.  Not wishing to turn his back on the street for long, he ran to the front door.

Ryan helpfully opened the door as Evan drew closer.  He fidgeted as he spoke, nervous tension in his posture.  "Oh man, are you freaking out on us again?"

"I think we might be okay for a while."  Evan exhaled, nervously gazing down the corridor one last time before entering.

Jennifer was kneeling beside Zack near the glass dividing barrier.  She looked up very briefly to address Evan.  "He's really badly hurt."

Zack blew heavily through grit teeth as he sat motionless.  He had been the only one among the five to actually tumble onto the hard floor as a result of the most recent blackout event. "My arm.  It's broken."  He held his right arm steady, a stream of blood dripping down as Jennifer applied pressure to the grievous wound.

Minoko knelt beside Jennifer, rummaging through a box of first aid supplies those in the building had previously scrounged together.  "I'm sorry, I don't know what to do."

"Just hand me that other bandage."  Jennifer the fresh bandage to the injury and tightened it.

"Crap, that hurts."  Zack exhaled forcefully, pain watering his eyes as he struggled to remain motionless.

To his knowledge, Jennifer had the same rudimentary knowledge of first aid he had, but the severity of this injury seemed too extensive to handle.  But he had an inkling of an idea.  "Jennifer, can you handle this on your own for a few minutes?"

"What?"  Jennifer expressed shock, but strained herself not to look away.  "I- I think so."

"Good."  Evan retrieved the keys to the iron gate.  "Ryan, come with me."

"What?  Evan, no don't-"  Strain lined Jennifer's voice.

"If anyone hears anything strange, don't investigate.  Just hide as fast as you can."  Evan departed prior to further protests could be heard.  He knew where he might find someone with sufficient medical training to handle the problem.  The possibility of finding the aid was all that mattered.

Ryan followed haphazardly, more mystified than anything as he pushed his ratty coat's hood over his head.  "Whoa, dude.  If you're going out there again, are you at least going to take the axe with you?"

Evan paused on his way to retrieve the weapon, then leaned it against the iron barrier as he unlocked and unthreaded the heavy chain.  "Okay.  But lock this up again once I leave and wait here for me to return.  But if you hear absolutely anything strange, run inside right away and get everyone into hiding away from the doors."

 "What would I hear?"  Ryan asked just before Evan ran out of range to respond.  There was no forthcoming answer.

Imperfect Information

While the majority of the building's stranded residents burst through the doors, Lucas withdrew to the back of the chamber.  Once Leon confirmed that the door had been firmly closed once again, the dormitory regained its formerly robust sound of life.  Numerous people had shed excess water from coats and umbrellas throughout the lobby upon their entry as they departed to other areas.  Such was not uncommon an event for the old cement flooring on rainy days, giving the place a very normal feel despite the lack of electricity.

Lucas watched the proceedings silently from beside the stairs along the back wall.  Unlike Jorge, he was not very concerned about being protected from another strange blackout event.  Instead, he desired to overhear additional information, while remaining on the periphery of the clamor- out of everyone's attention.  There was a brief period of noise as the various arriving residents vacated the front lobby in clusters, leaving behind a small contingent of people sharing their knowledge of the situation.

Simon loudly cursed the retreat of the rescue operation again.  Chloe related a horrified description of coming across a shot figure, presumably a dead body. The Hispanic person with the black eye Lucas didn't know conveyed distress at witnessing the expedient departure of a few densely packed city buses.  After a minute the turmoil abated and the room somewhat cleared; a single conversation had coalesced out of those remaining.

Lucas picked up on the proceedings as Leon finished a thought, "-sure they'll come back soon."

"The damn cowards have tanks!  They have machine guns!  Why the fuck are they running away at all?"  Simon replied.

"Probably because of the thing that just knocked almost everybody out.  If that happened again while everyone was out in the open, the zombies could kill a lot more people while everyone was unconscious."  Chloe shook off and folded an umbrella.  She had set a carrying case beside herself in a dry location.

"That's right.  If everyone can just pass out like that, it makes the situation different than anyone expected.  If that's possible, they need to figure out what they should do about it."  Leon added.

"Couldn't some zombies have gotten past them somewhere and are running around where people think it's still safe?"  George leaned against the wall on one side.

"Isn't that what happened?"  Erin spoke tentatively.  "Just a bit after we woke up there was shooting.  People were running and screaming."

"That's right."  George said.  "The zombies must have come forward while everyone was unconscious and got a few people who were behind the front line.  When the soldiers woke up they noticed and took care of them."

"I don't think all of those were infected."  Chloe motioned to her head.  "Some of them weren't killed correctly for that."

"Oh, I didn't notice..."  George trailed off, a sick look on his face.

"God damn cowards just panicked."  Simon asserted.  "They killed all the nearby ones before the whatever the fuck that blackout was.  And now they're all terrified just because we were all knocked out for a few minutes."

"It's not like a mass blackout is normal."  Erin countered.

"We should get the hell out of here too."  Jorge called from the back of the room.  "While it's still safe out there."

"It's not safe out there.  If that blackout event happens again while we're outside it could be a disaster."  Chloe set her umbrella against the wall.  "At least if it happens again while we're inside, we won't have to worry about the zombies."

"Plus we don't even know what direction would be safe."  Erin added.

"Don't you get it?  There's something else out there!"  Jorge breathed heavily as he approached the doors.  "That's why they're running!  We should get out there and try to follow them before they get too far ahead of us."

There was a brief moment of uneasy silence as the wild assertion sank in.  Simon spoke next.  "What the fuck are you talking about?  They're in cars, we can't catch up with them."

"Nobody we saw out there mentioned seeing anything."  Chloe crossed her arms in front of herself.

"Come on, the thing that created the blackout!"  Jorge spoke with a tremble in his voice.  "It destroyed the helicopters and knocked everyone out.  We need to leave before it heads this way!"

Lucas couldn't help himself and broke out into laughter again.  Everyone present turned to look at him with either irritation or anxiety.

"What the hell's your problem?"  Simon scowled.

After a few seconds, Lucas calmed down enough to form words.  "He's terrified of something he doesn't know anything about, but the zombies that we do know are out there somewhere are not a problem."  Lucas snickered.  Wasn't the existence of z-rays and zombies scary enough?

"Tell them."  Jorge pointed to Lucas.  "Explain to them how something out there did this!"

Lucas resisted the urge to laugh out loud again.  "Uh-  I only meant that the source of that blackout event was relatively close.  I didn't mean whatever caused it to happen was right around here somewhere.  Or that it could have been caused deliberately by something."

"But that has to be it!"  Jorge nervously glanced outside.  "Something else is out there!  The army attacked it and it fought back!"

"It's definitely possible.  Could be an alien invasion."  Lucas smirked, resisting the urge to break out laughing again.  "It could just be something natural.  We don't know what really caused the blackout.  So your guess is as good as mine."

"We know it's close, and that people with training and heavy weaponry are freaked out by it.  That's reason enough to get the hell out of here too."  Jorge motioned for Leon to open the doors.  Leon looked back in awkward silence, as if unsure of whether to let him out or not.

"Running away might not help."  Lucas shook his head.  "Since it seems like it was partly blocked by the building, the effect probably didn't occur on the other side of the planet.  But I don't think we can really know anything more than that."

"What do you mean probably?"  Chloe approached Lucas as the surrounding group broke up into a separate, spontaneous argument on the merits of leaving or staying.

"Well, it could still be really far away.  Without knowing the range of the effect and how it works, we can't really estimate how far away it is or even where it is.  But if we travelled about a mile or so and found people who weren't knocked out by it that would tell us something we could use."  Lucas shrugged as he edged slowly towards the stairs in the room.  "It seems reasonable to assume for now that it came from one source and was evenly spread out over the area, but we don't even know that's true."

"But it's somewhere above us, right?"  Chloe suggested a guess while walking beside Lucas to the stairs.

Pausing for a moment to consider the suggestion, Lucas nodded.  "Actually, yeah.  The blackout thing probably came from somewhere overhead. Otherwise the buildings might have blocked the effect for some of the people outside just like it did for people inside."  Lucas stood at the edge of the stairs and looked into the lobby.  Simon seemed to be convincing Jorge to stay even as others now seemed rather uneasy.  "But until we know more than that, I don't think I want to just blindly try to run."

"Yeah.  The infected are dangerous, but as far as we know right now, that mass blackout wasn't any more dangerous than they are."  Chloe agreed.

"Just what I was thinking."  Lucas shrugged, wondering if it might be a good idea for someone to go outside and take a look around.  He still ached from his tumble, but didn't exactly think it was an awful idea.  After all, they might be able to learn something interesting.  Or useful.

Inordinate Events

Water drenched the city as numerous limp forms littered the street.  An isolated figure dashed amidst the disarray.  Paralyzed mobs had naturally produced erratic piles while many of the luckier were slumped inside idling vehicles.  Dashing amidst the sea of immobile forms, Evan paused to roll individuals from their backs and onto their sides.  In one case, he pulled a soldier who had been face down out of a puddle and worked to drain the water from his lungs.  A couple of times he saved someone from a drowning fate who bore an obviously broken bone or a bleeding injury.

Fortunately for Evan's sake as much as anyone else's, it appeared that the vast majority of the populace stricken by the peculiar malady had fallen forwards or to one side.  But even with that fortunate happenstance, there were still far too many in need of aid he was not capable of helping.  Puddles dotted the city streets and his eyes were inexorably drawn to someone new that required aid.  Further into the downtown region, a wispy haze of smoke was battered by rain, clear evidence of flames that were being rapidly expunged by the precipitous rainfall.

As time urgently pressed onwards into minutes, Evan had been drawn increasingly further from his safe origin.  Among the locus of idling buses and military transport, there were thankfully very few crashed vehicles, the product of drivers rendered unconscious during motion.  Very few had collided with a building or one another vehicle, but it did happen.  Sometimes with unpleasant, gory outcomes for those caught in their path.  Luckily for the passengers, it appeared as if the collisions were mostly low speed, non-fatal and the vehicle damage had been mostly superficial.

The downpour filled the air with a steady hushed static; the faint noises of which Evan had barely been cognizant had subsided after a short interval.  The agonized squealing of twisting metal or the snapping, sharp whistles had felt like products of anxiety or temporary derangement.  In his harried impulse to help, Evan's lingering thoughts dismissed the perception as a confabulation spurred by anxiety and imagination.  Yet upon passing beyond the edge of one building corner, he spied something that brought that perception rushing to the forefront of his conscious mind.

Only a few hundred feet away Evan witnessed numerous twisted, torn hulks of metal which littered the soaked pavement and sidewalks.  Where once had presumably been an armored vehicle, only torn and dysfunctional scraps remained.  Zombies could not do that, whispered a chillingly compulsive, instantaneous mental voice.  Adding to the alarm, within the proximity of those remains- indeed anywhere nearby- there were absolutely no unconscious figures.  Firearms had been strewn about as if their bearers had dropped them in a wild panic as they had fled.

A murmur of shuffling activity diverted attention before the sight had time to fully impress itself upon Evan.  Startling movement spurred honed reflexes to leap away.  The human horde around him had finally stirred, and now rose to their feet with startled, bare comprehension of what had taken place.  Voices and murmuring speech filled the air as individuals checked on companions, retrieved fallen objects and tended to injuries sustained.

A few on the outer edge witnessed the evidence of wreckage and missing that Evan had spied and began shouting in alarm.  Others came to with serious injuries or within sight of mangled bodies and shrieked.  A sudden wave of urgency swept through the crowd as a disorganized terror swept over civilian and soldier alike.  Amplified voices bellowed for calm and order as officers attempted to alleviate the fearful and impose discipline over the dense clusters.

Evan attempted to assist the efforts to reassert order, but his actions to subdue what was coming merely added to the growing maelstrom.  Gradually people became horrified upon spreading realizations of their exposure spread.  With the front line of their organized rescue shattered and its accompanying soldiers vanished without a trace, there was a growing mood of unease.  Eyes darted nervously throughout the multitudes, as people neurotically regarded anyone within vision as a possible undead attacker.  They were increasingly susceptible to zombie attack from anywhere and the thought compelled everyone to terrified distraction.

Evan watched in shock as a nearby bolting individual- very much still living- prompted a pop of gunfire into the edge of the assembled clusters, and that was all it took to dash any hope that order would be restored.  A stampede broke out as nearby people naturally reacted to the gunfire with an impulse to flee.  With no clear criteria to distinguish zombie from living, that initial spark created a cascading effect that swept through the street.  More isolated gunfire broke out in spurts as chaos soon reigned.

Throngs bolted in random directions, a ripple of motion pressed against the enveloping human sea.  Some assailed the idling vehicles in a desperate bid to acquire a space which did not exist; still others were trampled within the furor or crushed as alarmed drivers accelerated away.  Babbled warnings of zombies filled the air as Evan wove his way through the tides, halting beside a building's heavy wall and remaining there until the throttling currents had dissipated.

Within a minute the gunfire and screams had retreated into the distance and the induced madness nearby had waned.  The increasingly distant roar revealed that the havok within the local area had spread through the surrounding blocks.  Carefully gazing in every direction for signs of the abnormal, Evan ventured carefully to where he had been standing just prior to the outburst.

Attention was momentarily drawn to Evan as the nervous soldiers regarded him as a possible hostile.  Holding his hands up and walking slowly, he gained the uneasy trust of the minority of those who had remained in the vicinity.  Those still present were actively attending to the wounded or in some cases, requesting urgent aid for the rapidly dying.

Rushing to assist where he could, Evan could barely hear the sounds of the world as the senselessness of it all overtook him.  There were few zombies in the area and Evan was not sure he had actually witnessed any out here.  Yet he had seen perhaps dozens die or receive fatal wounds due to an aimless spurt of paranoia.

With his adrenaline wearing off and without any protection from the rain, Evan could feel cold numbness seeping into his flesh and mind.  With his ability to change the circumstances around him severely diminished, the reality of the situation had begun to impact him.

"Civilian!  Stop at once!  Return to your shelter!"  Dull comprehension of the echoing commands came to Evan gradually as his attention was forcefully drawn away from a dying gunshot victim.

Few other living remained nearby who were not overloaded onto a military jeep.  Most of the vehicles had vanished while Evan had not been looking.  Those few others on foot were moving quickly away.  How much time had passed was unknown, but those providing emergency medical care were withdrawing and numerous refugees had simply vanished.  A medic came forwards to staunch the wound of the person Evan had been trying to help.

Reluctantly, Evan turned his attention away from the dying, walking through the streets splashed with blood.  Sporadic gunfire still fired nearby and along the surrounding avenues as he proceeded to his dorm.  Before much longer, the loud cracks halted and the last of the vehicles disappeared from sight soon afterwards.  Evan was left alone, walking through familiar avenues rendered nightmarish.

It was almost as if the city had been a battlefield.  Evan barely had enough presence of mind to check around himself for his own safety.  A few times he almost stumbled over an immobile body.  Eventually, he returned to the wrought iron gate of the Mansfield dormitory and approached as a familiar face gazed out at him from the other side.

"Evan!  Evan!"  The single figure waved, close to the bars and partly hidden under an umbrella.  In the nearby street, one of the dormitory's residents laid in a pool of vermillion.

Still in his rattled, numbed condition, Evan approached without immediately recognizing or acknowledging the individual.

"Say something!"  Zack had a look of surprise on his face.  "Were you bitten?  What happened?  Evan!"

"I wasn't bitten."  Evan exhaled with great effort to speak.  "I am fine."

As he neared the gate, Zack allowed him entry.  He said other things, but Evan could barely hear them as he was escorted into the building.

"What happened?"  Jennifer asked from somewhere within the lobby.

"It's okay."  Evan replied as he sat on the floor next to the closed elevator door.  While doing so, he became aware of the blood on his own hands and clothing, adding.  "This isn't my blood.  I'm okay."

There were more voices, but Evan only focused on the one thing he had been able to see running through his mind ever since the first shot of the massacre had stung his ears.  Despite only a hazy recollection of identifying traits, he was almost certain the human catalyst for the event- the first person who had bolted- had been one of those he had saved from drowning.